Joshua's RV-9A Project

Deburred all drilled holes on the firewall, and the edges of the recess cutout.

Drilled the holes to size on all the firewall parts, then disassembled for deburring and countersinking.  Fabricated a new fuel pump doubler plate when I accidentally countersunk the wrong side of the platenut attach holes — the flush heads go on the aft side of the firewall, opposite the rest of the rivets on this piece.  (This is so the fuel pump can sit flat against the aft face of the plate.)  Deburred/countersunk all edges and holes of the smaller pieces, leaving just the firewall and recess to deal with.  Deburring the stainless looks like a chore.

Spent a few hours before work today in the shop, and completed fabrication of the various angles and doublers that are needed in the firewall assembly.  There’s some pretty hefty angle to chop up in this step.  I may try to get components done up through the bulkheads, and then have one big priming session…though the progress of riveting something, like the firewall, would be a good motivator.

Working with the firewall has me contemplating the recent thread on VAF about firewall insulation; one of the guys is a proponent of engine-side insulation to protect the aluminum components, but I wonder if it’s really necessary–how many RV’s have had in-flight engine fires, and of those who have, how many were hot & long enough to melt the aluminum rivets and cause the firewall assembly to fail?  Before this most recent thread twist, I was thinking of using the ceramic sheets/blankets with some sort of tabs or sheets to hold them in place, on the cabin side, since a flame-thrower test showed that solution to be effective for occupant protection.  Some anecdotes also suggest not insulating the FW at all, since the heat from normal ops helps heat the cabin in cooler climates.  What do production aircraft do?  Much to ponder.

Started to putz with the fuselage by laying out the firewall and clecoing the various angles, stiffeners, and such in place.  Some searching was necessary to find all the little bits, and I’ll have some doublers, angles, and reinforcing plates to fabricate.  I’m thinking that I will install the fuel pump doubler plate, even though I plan an injected engine–one can never tell what the future might hold, so best to be prepared.

Made it through the giant bag-o-hardware tonight.  Lots of bolts, nuts, and bags filled with 15 different kinds of washers all mixed up.  I will admit to pouring all the washers/nuts/etc back into the bag together again, after separating and counting them.  Oh well.  Eventually, I’ll get more hardware organizers, but the one I have now is brimming with wing kit parts already.

Email sent to Van’s about the F-902-R’s and the rough piece of bar stock.

Completed inventory of everything except the giant bag of hardware.  Everything present & accounted for except that I received two F-902-R’s, instead of one -R and one -L.  Also, one short piece of bar stock (AB4-125X1 1/2X8) is extremely rough looking and gouged up…some sort of manufacturing problem, I think.

Cleaned up the shop from unrelated projects, then opened up the fuselage box and started inventory.  Lots of fun parts; seatbacks, gear weldments, instrument panel…  and a giant mountain of packing paper!

Trip to the ABF terminal in Owatonna after work today to pick up the fuselage kit.  No damage to speak of, and the crate just fits (lengthwise) in the back of a full-size pickup box with the gate up.  In the garage overnight while it’s snowing, then I can unload with the skid loader tomorrow in the daylight.

Van’s called this afternoon, asking for authorization to charge for the balance due on the fuselage kit…so it appears that they are shipping on schedule.  They said the kit is going to crating next week.  When they sent me the order confirmation, the expected ship date was the week of 2/9 — three weeks earlier than anticipated, based on the advertised lead time (8-9 weeks) when I ordered.

Quick production is a good thing, now I just need to step up on the progress here!

Received the order confirmation for the fuselage from Van’s today.  The estimated ship date is Feb. 9 — only 6 weeks from order!  Wasn’t expecting it that soon, so they must be running on good time over there.  I expect to go pick it up at the terminal (in Owatonna) again to save on the residential delivery fees, which means I have to finally take the load of junk that’s in the truck to the dump.

Options ordered with the fuselage:

• Left & right steps
• Right-side brakes
• Manual aileron trim

I also need to get some shelves built in the garage to get stuff up off the floor and make more usable space, so there’s room to stash the wings & empennage pieces to make plenty of room for the fuselage build, without having to kick out a car until absolutely necessary.